Every two years we bring together policy makers, elected officials, non-profits, and community organizations to share their thoughts and expertise on a wide variety of health equity policy areas.
Our 2021 conference was an opportunity to reflect on the November election and where the Federal administration will take our country’s health policies. It was also be a place for speakers to share how we can rebuild our communities after the COVID-19 pandemic.
View session slides, recordings, and resources for each workshop including opening plenaries and office hours.
View our full YouTube playlist here.
Day 1
Equitable COVID-19 Response, Vaccine distribution, and recovery
COVID-19 has caused unprecedented disruption to our communities, highlighting inequities that we have long known but that have been largely unaddressed as a result of structural racism. This plenary will unpack where we go from here – how we can ensure that COVID-19 results in transformative change, how communities are taking leadership in determining an equitable path for pandemic recovery, and what we can expect as we prepare for a mass vaccine distribution.
Health care adaption in the face of a global pandemic: what can we learn from the rapid adoption of telehealth
COVID-19 has brought about swift change in the way care is provided from in-person office visits to remote telehealth visits, forcing health care providers and consumers alike to adapt. Consumer advocates raise concerns that in the rush to offer telehealth, consumer needs, especially for Black, Indigenous, people of color and limited English proficient consumers will be ignored. Hear from consumers and policy experts on the benefits and challenges of telehealth for vulnerable populations, including health care access, language access, and health care quality.
- Recording
- Slides
- Resources
- Can the nutritionist call me during my lunch break?” and other patient stories of telehealth improving access
- Telemedicine for Health Equity Toolkit
- Peer Sharing: Promising Best Practices for Video Visits
- Reimbursing FQHCs for Telehealth Post-COVID-19 Pandemic: Medi-Cal’s Options
- Equity in the Age of Telehealth: Considerations for California Policymakers
Social determinants & Pandemic response: exploring the intersection of housing, environment, and health – sponsored by anthem blue cross
Your zip code and your health are intrinsically tied together. Your ability to find safe, decent, affordable housing or not impacts the air you breathe, how long you commute to work, your access to parks and open spaces, and your ability to access healthy and affordable food. This panel will discuss how housing is one of the main contributors to the ability to live a healthy life.
- Recording
- Slides
- Resources
- Mapping Resilience: A Blueprint for Thriving in the Face of Climate Disasters
- Resilience Before Disaster: The Need to Build Equitable Community-Driven Social Infrastructure
- AB 1232: Healthy Homes Fact Sheet
- Racism as a Public Health Letter
- Eviction Cases in California Projected to Double
- Black and Latino Renters Face Eviction, Exclusion Amid Policy Crackdowns in California
- The Fossil Fuel Industry Wants You to Believe it’s Good for People of Color
Finance Office Hours
Join us and ask your questions about finance including internal controls, budgets and scenario planning, online accounting, and more!
Day 2
Understanding health Equity
Data is critical to defining health disparities and to pointing us toward solutions and opportunities for advancing equity. However, data is often limited by the same systems of oppression that create discriminatory policies and unjust outcomes. So how can we unlock the power of community-defined data? This plenary will explore our understanding of health equity through data and discuss opportunities to increase community participate in creating data.
- Recording
- Resources
Blooming in our visions: Rising in Collective power & healing racial trauma
In this workshop we will delve into our radical imagination, free from where we have been and unrestricted from our lived realities. We hope to create a space that’s free flowing, and highlights why radical imagination is a powerful tool in dismantling harmful systems and creating systems change that centers Black Indigenous People of Color, is liberated, and has multi-racial solidarity.
Centering Equity in Payment and delivery reform
Despite a stated commitment by Medi-Cal and our public health systems to addressing health inequities, very few payment and delivery reform efforts have resulted in measurable reductions. The next chapter of health care delivery and payment reform in California offers both a significant opportunity to address disparities and potential challenges as we continue to push the envelope. Hear from consumers, state policymakers, health systems and providers about strategies and approaches to health system transformation that are centered in equity and responsive to the needs of consumers.
Connecting our movements: criminal justice is health justice
Why does local law enforcement spending so disproportionately outweigh health and social services spending and in what ways does it negatively impact our community health? This panel will address how we can advocate for resources to be invested equitably to reduce law enforcement involvement and invest in community-based programs and solutions. In an effort to address the root causes of health disparities, we must also focus on the impact of state-sanctioned violence, racism, and police brutality.
- Recording
- Resources
- At What Cost? How Local Governmental Shortchange the Health of Communities of Color
- Racism as a Public Health Crisis Letter
- Public Health Advocates’ Resolution Defining the City of Sacramento’s Public Safety Services to Include Emergency Response and Operations as Well as Youth-Centered Prevention Services
- Human Impact Partners’ Health Instead of Punishment Program
- Mervin Brookins’ Brother to Brother Program
- Californian’s for Safety and Justice Progress Not Prison Campaign
- Blueprint for Shared Safety
- Critical Resistance
- The End of Policing by Alex Vitale
- Human Impact Partners
- HIP Facebook
- HIP Twitter
- HIP blog
- Human Impact Partners’ Health Instead of Punishment Program
- HIP’s health research on pretrial incarceration and money bail
- HIP’s health research on ICE transfers
- HIP’s webinars on the policing and state violence
- Decarcerate Alameda County
- The Dignity Not Detention Coalition
- The People’s Coalition for Safety and Freedom
- Join 100 Days of Freedom on Tuesdays: bit.ly/100DaysFF
- Grant clemency to incarcerated women and girls
- How much does CA spend on policing, the criminal legal system, and incarceration?
Effective public health communications during the covid-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the ways public health professionals do health education and communications, both in who is messaging, and how the messages are disseminated. The pandemic has also underscored the significance of population-specific outreach, education and messaging that truly understand and respect population-specific health behaviors and beliefs. Furthermore, recognizing that health communication is crucial for the success of implementing policy change, community-based organizations, advocates and policy makers are learning to harness the strength of media and social media to drive attitude and behavioral changes. This workshop seeks to explore effective public health communications during the COVID-19 pandemic from a variety of perspectives that will improve health equity.
Data Office Hours
Join us and ask your questions on how to use data in your work. Bring your questions!
Day 3
2020 Election and Health equity
Just as the 2016 election had profound, if unanticipated, impacts on the health of our communities, so too will the outcome of the 2020 election. A change of federal administration will lessen the horrific attacks that communities of color have endured for the last four years, but our work is not done yet. With the ACA at risk and much more needed to address the COVID-19 pandemic, this plenary will discuss what’s next for health reform, COVID-19 response, reproductive justice, and more.
Bridging the gap: collective healing and systems change
This workshop will focus on connecting healing and systems change. Often times, there’s many separate and siloed conversations about healing and systems change. What happens when we bridge that gap and tap into both topics that allow for us to strategize and build upon frameworks for future policies in 2021?
Envisioning the future of public health in california – sponsored by blue shield of california
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the devastating consequences of our public health systems being under-resourced and underfunded for decades, hindering our ability to adequately respond to a global infectious disease and its socio-economic impacts of unprecedented scale. The movement for Black lives and calls to defund the police, following the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, was yet another wake-up call in the soul searching of public health’s core mission to actively eliminate structural injustices and barriers to achieve optimal health for our society’s most marginalized. This workshop aims to discuss a critical first step to move us towards such vision and long-term recovery to build and strengthen partnerships and collaborations across all sectors, particularly those that honor, value and leverage community-based practices, community partnerships, and community self-determination.
Putting Consumers at the center of health care – sponsored by delta dental of california
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the devastating consequences of our public health systems being under-resourced and underfunded for decades, hindering our ability to adequately respond to a global infectious disease and its socio-economic impacts of unprecedented scale. The movement for Black lives and calls to defund the police, following the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, was yet another wake-up call in the soul searching of public health’s core mission to actively eliminate structural injustices and barriers to achieve optimal health for our society’s most marginalized. This workshop aims to discuss a critical first step to move us towards such vision and long-term recovery to build and strengthen partnerships and collaborations across all sectors, particularly those that honor, value and leverage community-based practices, community partnerships, and community self-determination.
Technology Office hours
Join us and ask your questions and get advice about technology solutions.